A week or two ago I read this article about AirBnB scammers and it was pretty interesting. This week we used a Turo car for a day and I can't help but wonder if I was part of some scam.
- The listing was for a Fusion, but said in the description that it was actually a Fiesta and for some weird reason they weren't able to update the listing. Probably they previously had a Fusion listing and wanted to keep the same reviews or something instead of creating a new car listing. Anna used my phone to make the reservation so I hadn't read the description, so I was more frustrated by this vehicle change initially, then realized that it was partly my fault. But still...the car model should be correct.
- The car still had dealer plates on it. The dealer paperwork in the glovebox showed that the car was purchased four months prior, so they should definitely have the plates by now. When I later read the reviews, one said they walked away from the car over this issue.
- The host asked that I text them a picture of my driver's license with the odometer. I'm not sure why including this photo in the Turo app wouldn't be good enough. Probably Turo has a policy saying that the host can't ask for that sort of personal info. Anyways, I idiotically did text them the photo so now they have my phone number and DL info. Not smart.
A few hours into the car rental I started to figure out how sketchy all of this was. I submitted a support ticket with Turo but still haven't heard anything back two days later. Hopefully I don't get my identity stolen and hopefully that host gets shut down! I haven't been able to figure out exactly what the host would be gaining so maybe there is no scam.
Next time we will probably look into a regular car rental. I don't think it is much more expensive. And while car rental companies can sometimes be frustrating, at least you know it is almost certainly innocent incompetence and not malicious activity. So there is a balance: more personal dealings (Turo, AirBnB, Couchsurfing, etc.) which may be cheaper, more convenient, and/or more personal, versus real businesses where you may pay more and get a bland experience that you know is going to be the same every time.